Subterfuge and Secrets: Memoirists Who Go Undercover to Learn the Truth

Part of Litquake Writers Weekend

How do memoirists fill in the gaps when there are missing pieces in their research—for example, when the person with needed information died long ago or when gender, culture, language, or other barriers thwart the process? These obstacles require memoirists to get crafty. This might mean using creative nonfiction to write imagined scenes, or even require lying, eavesdropping, and/or employing subterfuge to gain access to something off-limits. Susan Kiyo Ito, Margaret Juhae Lee, Grace Loh Prasad, and Leslie Absher will present how they used “unofficial” means to get at the truth, and, in essence, became spies in their own stories. FREE, $10–15 suggested donation

Host or Publisher Litquake, San Francisco's Literary Festival